Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
Post-Enlightenment, rationalist, materialist culture has cooked up all sorts of enticing solutions to mankind’s greatest questions and dilemmas. We’re told that science has already delivered a deathblow to religion, and any talk of God or the Bible is dismissed as a superstition of a bygone age. Christian faith is regarded as a leap into the dark—a leap into intellectual oblivion.
One of the great challenges to faith in Christ, then, is whether we will take God at His word and be satisfied with what He says. In our cultural milieu, it’s good for us to periodically ask ourselves: “Do I believe the Bible? Am I actually prepared to trust what it says?”
We can have confidence in the testimony of Scripture for all kinds of reasons. We can consider the undeniable integrity of its manuscripts, its historical reliability down to the details of its claims, or even the way it has engendered faith across cultures for nearly two thousand years. But there’s actually a reason that’s even more fundamental than these or other defenses we could muster: the most essential reason we submit ourselves to the authority of Scripture is because it is a necessary consequence of our submission to the lordship of Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ believed the Bible; therefore, so do we. He acknowledged the authority of God’s word; therefore, so do we.
In His High Priestly Prayer on the night before He died, Jesus prayed to His Father, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” Notice that there are no qualifications here. According to Jesus, God’s word simply is truth. So then, the pressing question becomes, Do I believe Jesus? And if I believe Jesus, then I believe the words Jesus spoke. Therefore, I accept what He taught about the Scriptures. Therefore, I embrace the Bible, just as He did.
If you have tasted and seen the goodness of Jesus Christ, then refresh your resolve to cherish God’s word daily. In our confused and conflicted world, nothing will steady your life like the truth of the Scriptures. Doubtless, some will try to convince you that embracing the Bible is equivalent to taking a blind leap into the dark. But the truth is that when you read the Scriptures in faith that it is God’s word and that every word is therefore true, you’ll find it to be a lamp to your feet and a light to your path (Psalm 119:105).
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Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotional by Alistair Begg, published by The Good Book Company, thegoodbook.com. Used by Truth For Life with permission. Copyright © 2021, The Good Book Company.